A PARANORMAL ENCOUNTER WITH AN ANGEL

For the month of  October ,  Mimi Illenberger-Mapa shares this true story of a young housewife and how she was saved from an almost certain death by an angelic intervention.

When I was 23 years old, I accepted a new job that was a tremendous amount of responsibility. I was stressed out because my supervisor was acting like I wasn't doing a good enough job and I was working as hard as I could. My husband and I had just purchased a new home. This was another stress since financially we were really strapped and I couldn't afford to lose my job.

One morning I was getting ready for work and was drying my hair. A strange thought came into my mind: Wouldn't it be hard to dry your hair with one arm? I was running late and jumped into my car. Being a seat belt user all my life, I thought I would wait until I get off of our street and pull up onto the highway to put on my belt. It was only a short way. Then I thought: Oh, what the heck. What difference will a few seconds make? I'd better belt up, and I did.

Being stressed and in a hurry, I raced up to the stop sign on our street. The ramp onto the highway was on an incline. I looked left then right quickly. There were some big vehicles parked on the left side, so I didn't see the oncoming truck! When I pulled out to turn left onto the highway, I looked right into a semi-truck coming at me broadside! My heart almost stopped and I thought to myself, "This is it. You are going to die today!" I ducked down to the side in my car. The crash was unavoidable. My fear was horrible.

Then I felt a presence there in the car with me. It told me that everything would be alright, and I felt a tremendous peace and warmth. I felt that if I would have looked beside me I would have seen an angel. Next thing I knew I was being taken to the hospital. Amazing to everyone, the only real injuries I had were a broken arm and several bruises.

My husband later took me to see my car - and this is really weird. The truck that hit me was carrying 40,981 pounds of steel, but the driver jackknifed his load or it would have completely smashed my car and me. When he hit my door broadside, it knocked my bench seat lose and pushed it out the passenger door with me on it! My seat belt should have torn me in half at that point; however, it was as if someone had sliced it off at the bottom by the door with a sharp knife. So I stayed on the seat minus the belt and went out the passenger door on the seat!

I know there was an angel there that day because of all the things that could and should have happened but didn't. I still had unfinished business here on earth.

My husband said the seat belt must have held me long enough to keep me from getting injured, but was cut off just in time to let me go out the door on the seat. He commented on the belt being so sharply cut off at the bottom and the load of steel being jackknifed. It was amazing to us.

I know there was an angel there that day because of all the things that could and should have happened but didn't. At that time I didn't have any children. Today I tell my children that they are the reason I am here. God decided to send an angel down because I was supposed to have my children and still had unfinished business here on earth.

I had to be off work for about two weeks, and my supervisor stepped in to do my job. She was nice to me when I came back to work because she said she had no idea of the work load I had. She commented that she was surprised I could keep up with it at all and decided to give me some extra help with things. That was another weird thing about this accident. If it hadn't happened I don't think my supervisor would have ever understood where I was coming from at work or that I was doing the best I could. I know today there are angels because the presence I felt that day was so calming. Sometimes I think if it hadn't been there, I would have died from fear and shock. It helps me today when I think about it, knowing there is a higher being in times of need.

Do angels really exist?

It is probably safe to say that many of us have actually seen these messengers from God but didn’t realize it. The Bible says, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (Hebrews 13:2). Like many others, I believe I have been providentially protected by angels. 

But that’s not why I am convinced of their existence. I believe in angels because the Bible plainly teaches that they exist. From Genesis to Revelation we read all about them. At least 250 Bible passages speak of angels. The last book of the Bible alone has 80 references. Surely, with so many Scriptures about them, it is a subject worthy of our careful attention.

Both the Hebrew word mal’ak and the Greek wordangelos, from which we get the word “angel,” simply mean “messenger.” Indeed, the word is sometimes used to describe a human who is dispatched as an emissary. People often mistook angels for ordinary people, but these heavenly messengers are greater than mortal beings. And they are not all alike. One class of angels is called cherubim, such as those who guarded the gates of Eden after Adam and Eve were expelled. These winged angels are also called “watchers.” Another class is called seraphim, which means “burning ones.” These celestial beings are often seen before God’s throne or by prophets while in vision.

Angels are created beings. Some have suggested that the “sons of God” uniting with the “daughters of men” reference in Genesis 6:2 is referring to angels. But we know angels cannot procreate. They are not human. David portrays them as brilliant beings created by God, “Who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire” (Psalm 104:4). Humans, by contrast, “have been made a little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5).

While created beings, angels are much more powerful than earthlings. Peter describes them as being “greater in power and might” (2 Peter 2:11). Did you know that a single angel destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night? (See 2 Kings 19:35.) When David sinned in numbering Israel, an angel went through the land as a plague and killed 70,000 men. The Bible explains, “Then David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem” (1 Chronicles 21:16). This was the work of just one angel.